It is starting to feel a lot like last season for the Anaheim Ducks when they could not buy a win early in the season and ended up scrambling down the finish.
On Tuesday night, the Ducks lost a close 2-1 decision to the New Jersey Devils in Newark.
Taylor Hall scored both Devils goals with both coming on the power play.
“It’s fun to not only get the first win, but to get our power play going,” Hall said. “The energy in the rink was great. Everyone was in red and every chance they got, they were on their feet.
“As a player sometimes you don’t feel 100 percent and sometimes it’s not clicking out there, and the crowd can get you into it; sometimes you rely on that at home.”
The loss was brought on by the Ducks inability to stay out of the box in the second period where they paraded to the penalty box four straight times, giving the Devils a chance to get their power play unit a chance to click.
“There’s a lot of hockey left but we’ve dug ourselves a bit of a hole,” the Ducks John Gibson said. “Obviously we all care in here and want to turn it around but it’s got to come from within.”
Gibson had 26 saves in the loss.
Sami Vatanen was the lone goal scorer for Anaheim.
“We play again in two days. In this League when you win the games you can’t think about it too long and when you lose you just got to put it behind you until the next one. We just can’t put the puck in the net. When we open the ketchup bottle, it will start to go in,” Vatanen said after the loss.
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